PLANT CITY — Edith Marie Marcus told investigators she thought she hit a pothole as she passed a stopped car on a dark stretch of U.S. 92 one evening in November, records show. She kept driving.
But Marcus, 80, had struck with her Mercury Grand Marquis a man who’d stopped to help a woman who had car trouble. Nine months later, the Plant City woman faces a charge of leaving the scene of a crash involving death in connection to the Nov. 22 crash that killed 56-year-old Virgilio Reyes Jr.
Reyes of Plant City had stopped to help a woman who’d stopped her Ford Focus in the westbound lane of U.S. 92 at Meadow Oaks Drive, according to a Florida Highway Patrol arrest affidavit. The woman told investigators she ran over something in the road and was trying to remove debris that had become stuck under her car.
The woman said Reyes asked her to pull her car forward while he tried to dislodge the debris. While Reyes was kneeling down by the passenger side of the car, the woman said, the driver of a westbound car passed the Focus on the right, struck Reyes and kept driving, according to the affidavit.
The next day, Marcus called the Florida Highway Patrol and said she’d seen a news story about a hit-and-run crash on U.S. 92. Marcus said she was in the area at the time and passed a disabled car, driving partially on the shoulder, and heard a “bump” that she thought was from a pothole.
Troopers went to her home and saw the Grand Marquis in the driveway with damage to the front end. During an interview with a trooper, Marcus said she didn’t see anyone around the stopped car so she passed it and felt something like a “pop” that she thought might be a pothole. She said she didn’t see anything in her rearview mirror so she kept driving.
Marcus said when she got home, a relative pointed out damage to the front of her car. Marcus said she immediately called the Highway Patrol after seeing a news story about the crash.
Troopers took samples from the front of the Mercury and at the end of June, lab results came back showing that Reyes’ DNA was on the front of the car.
Marcus was booked into the Hillsborough County jail on Thursday and released later the same day on $15,000 bail, records show. Leaving the scene of a crash involving death is a first- degree felony in Florida punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Reyes was born in Mexico and enjoyed watching soccer and spending time with his family, according to his obituary. Among his survivors are his wife of 30 years, two children and a grandchild.